April 20, 2012: Jewish Israeli civilians were targeted by three Arab roadside bombs set-up at night April 18th near Hevron. IDF sappers discovered the three-bomb set-up was sophisticated and reminiscent of the type of challenges faced by the IDF in Lebanon in the past. When IDF forces arrived on the scene they were instructed by their regiment commander to remain within their armoured vehicles. This order proved to be the right decision since in daylight the IDF discovered the third bomb with a tripwire in the bushes on a path leading to the nearby village of Yata. The bomb would have detonated against any IDF force that tried to go down the route. The Shin Bet succeeded in catching the terror cell that planted the bombs. The ambush signals a serious alert in the security situation in Judea.

A Jewish resident of Avigail in southern Mount Hevron, was driving home with a friend on the dark and largely deserted road, when he was distracted by a piece of black fabric waving in the wind and thought it was a dog running toward the road. He braked slightly and the next moment a huge ball of fire engulfed the front of his car. Had he not braked, he probably would have been at the center of the explosion when the bomb went off. The explosive device that had been planted at the side of the road was detonated with a cell phone. The Jewish man and his passenger managed to escape unharmed and continued driving. However, a second explosive charge, planted a few meters down the road which was planned to explode on them, was not detonated.

April 3, 2012: The Israel Antiquities Authority seized two stolen lids of ancient Egyptian coffins smuggled from Egypt to Jerusalem’s Old City via Dubai. Officials believe that the lids were stolen from a coffin containing a mummy and were smuggled from Egypt to Europe, then to Dubai and then Israel. The coffin lids suffered damage caused when the smugglers cut the lids in half.

The elaborate plastered lids are decorated with paintings and hieroglyphics. Israel Antiquities Authority experts dated the coffin lids from between 2,900 and 3,500 years ago, a period that includes the 210 years when Israelite Tribes descended from Israel during a famine, then known as Canaan, to Egypt where they later were subjects of slavery.

Egypt has requested Israel to return the lids and allege the smuggler probably chose Israel as their destination in order to affirm official authentication of their antiquity so they could sell them at a higher price. The coffin lids were discovered during a raid on antique stores in the Old City.

April 20, 2012: The UN Rights Office of Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights charged that three men sentenced to death in Hamas-run Gaza were executed unlawfully. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay’s spokesman, Rupert Colville, issued a statement in Geneva that the death sentences carried out by hanging on April 7 were not approved by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as required by law.

The UN office ordered Hamas to halt planned execution’s by firing squad. At least 18 men have been executed in Gaza since Hamas seized power in the coastal enclave in 2007. Human rights activists in Gaza state those numbers only represent official executions, not the full range of human rights violations perpetrated by Hamas.The men did not have regular access to lawyers and were tried by a military court despite being civilians.

After Hamas seized control of Gaza, several members of the rival Fatah faction were dragged from their homes and shot in both legs. Hamas has routinely incarcerated, kidnapped, maimed and tortured dissidents and political rivals in Gaza over the past five years.